Acts/Rules

Question 1

Civil Procedure Rules

Answer 1

April 1999 - Signalled a gradual change in the role of English courts which grant them more extensive powers to manage cases which come before them

Question 2

Human Rights Act 1998

Answer 2

Incorporates many Convention (for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) rights into English law, and new legislation presented to Parliament must now include a declaration as to whether it is compliant with the Convention rights

Question 3

Law Commission Act 1956

Answer 3

Established the Law Commission

Question 4

Interpretation Act 1978

Answer 4

Lays down certain rules of interpretation which apply to statute law generally (although may be overridden by express provisions of a particular Act):

• Words used in the singular are deemed to include the plural and vice versa
• The use of the masculine gender includes the feminine and vice versa
• The term ‘person’ is deemed to include artificial entities such as companies as well as human beings

Question 5

European Communities Act 1972

Answer 5

Any domestic legislation passed or to be passed is to be construed by the courts and take effect subject to EC obligations. Under s2 it has led the English courts to adopt a purposive approach to interpreting domestic legislation.

Question 6

Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977

Answer 6

Under this Act the collective description ‘wrongful interference’ was introduced to cover trespass to goods, conversion and certain other torts concerning goods. It simplified procedures and remedies relating to these torts but did not change the common law principle.

Question 7

Prescription Act 1832

Answer 7

Provides that if the defendant can establish that the actionable nuisance has existed openly and continuously for at least 20 years, their right to continue with the activity in question cannot be challenged

Question 8

Highways Act 1980

Answer 8

Section 41(1A)
Provides that the highway authority for a particular highway owed the highway's users a statutory duty to maintain it. It states 'In particular, a highway authority is under a duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that safe passage along a highway is not endangered by snow or ice'. A breach of these duties  gives rise to an action for breach of statutory duty.

Section 58(1)
Provides a defence for the highway authority if it proves that it took reasonable steps to see that the highway would be reasonably safe to travel. Therefore, a claim by a user of a highway who is injured or whose property has been harmed because the highway authority has failed to ensure that the highway was property maintained may be met by this defence.

Question 9

Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974

Answer 9

Takes the general common law duties of the employer and makes them subject to the criminal law. Can impose criminal penalties including unlimited fines and imprisonment up to 2 years.

Section 2(1):
It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.

Section 47(1)(a):
Makes it clear that breach of the duty under s.2(1) will not be civilly actionable. As a result, a employer cannot be sued for breach of statutory duty if they breach the general duty that they owe their employees under s.2 of the Act.

Section 15:
Gives the Government power to create statutory regulations governing health and safety in the workplace. Previously, s.47(2) provided that a breach of a duty arising under these regulations would be civilly actionable unless the regulations provide otherwise (now reversed by the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013).

Question 10

Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013

Answer 10

Section 69:
Amends s.47(2) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 so that a breach of duty under H&S regulations will not be civilly actionable unless those regulations expressly provide that it should be

Question 11

Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999

Answer 11

States that an employer may be sued if an accident at work is attributable to an employer’s failure to implement a suitable and sufficient risk assessment

Question 12

Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969

Answer 12

In the case of injury to an employee, insurance is in most cases compulsory under this act

Question 13

Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957

Answer 13

Was passed to simplify the old common law rules. Under the Act a ‘common duty of care’ (i.e. the same duty of care) is owed to all visitors on the land of another, that is all persons who are not trespassers. The duty is ‘to take such care as in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that the visitor will be reasonably safe in using the premises for the purposes for which he is invited or permitted by the occupier to be there’. In most cases, this duty will be much the same as the general duty of care imposed by the law of negligence.

Question 14

Occupiers’ Liability Act 1984

Answer 14

The principles established in the British Railways Board vs. Herrington (1972) case were put into statutory form in the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1984. Accordingly, the 1984 Act extends a duty of care to trespassers and other ‘uninvited entrants’. There are, however, limitations on this duty when compared to the broader duty to visitors under OLA 1957.

• A duty is owed only if the occupier knows or has reasonable grounds to believe that the danger exists and the trespasser is/may come into its vicinity.
• The risk must also be one against which the occupier may reasonably be expected to offer a trespasser some protection.
• The only protected forms of damage are death and personal injury, with no duty in relation to property.

Question 15

Consumer Protection Act 1987

Answer 15

Under the Act a producer is liable for personal injury, or damage in excess of £275 to property used for private purposes caused by a defect in their product

Question 16

Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945

Answer 16

Contributory negligence is no longer a complete defence; it merely reduces the damages awarded to the claimant to the extent that the claimant was himself to blame for the injury - it is therefore a ‘plea in mitigation’ (reduction) of liability rather than a true defence

Question 17

Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978

Answer 17

S1:
Any person liable in respect of any damage suffered by another person may recover contribution from any other person liable in respect of the same damage (whether jointly with him or otherwise)

Question 18

Family Law Reform Act 1969

Answer 18

Under English law a minor is a person below the age of 18

Question 19

Minor’s Contracts Act 1987

Answer 19

Provides that the court may, ‘if it is just and equitable to do so’, require the minor to transfer to the other party any property acquired by the minor under the contract or any property representing it

Question 20

Consumer Rights Act 2015

Answer 20

• There is implied in every contract for the sale of goods a condition that the seller has a right to sell the goods (s.17)
• Where goods are sold by description, there is an implied condition that the goods will correspond with the description (s.11).
• When the seller sells goods in the course of business, there is an implied condition that the goods supplied under the contract are of satisfactory quality and are reasonably fit (suitable) for the purpose supplied (s.9–10)
• Where goods are sold by sample there is an implied condition that the bulk will correspond with the sample in quality (s.13)

Question 21

Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 (UCTA)

Answer 21

Section 2 – negligence liability
Under s.2 of the Act, no one acting in the course of business can by means of contractual terms or by any notice given or displayed, exclude their liability for death or bodily injury arising from negligence.

Section 3 – contractual liability
Where one party deals on the other party’s written standard terms of business, then the other party cannot exclude or restrict their liability for breach of contract, except subject to a requirement of reasonableness.

Section 6 – sale of goods and hire-purchase
In these contracts, implied terms as to title cannot be excluded or restricted by a contract term. The other important implied terms can only be excluded in a non-consumer sale where the test of reasonableness is satisfied (the term is a fair or reasonable one to be included having regard to the circumstances which were, or ought reasonably to have been, known to or in the contemplation of the parties when the contract was made). In some cases the court is required to take into account the availability of insurance cover in deciding whether or not it is reasonable for one party to limit their liability.

Question 22

Life Assurance Act 1774

Answer 22

‘No insurance shall be made’ by a person who has no insurable interest in the life or event in question.

Also requires that the policy shall contain the name of the person interested in it (which suggests the need for a formal policy).

Question 23

Misrepresentation Act 1967

Answer 23

S.2(1) gives the right to claim damages for negligent misrepresentation.

S.2(2) allows the court to award damages in lieu of (instead of) rescission at its discretion where misrepresentation is innocent.

Question 24

Limitation Act 1980

Answer 24

The main limitation periods are:

• Simple contract = 6 years
• Personal injuries = 3 years
• Action brought on a speciality contract (deed) = 12 years

Question 25

Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999

Answer 25

Applies to contracts entered into on or after 11 May 2000. Provides that a third party (i.e. someone other than one of the original contracting parties) can enforce a contractual term if:

1. The contract provides that they may do so; or
2. The contract purports to confer a benefit on the third party, unless on a true construction of the contract it appears that the parties did not intend the term to be enforceable by the third party.

Question 26

Policies of Assurance Act 1867

Answer 26

Allows legal assignment of life policies, with the result that an assignee can enforce the policy in his own name as long as the requirements of the Act are complied with. The Act indicates the form of words which must be used for the assignment, requires these words to be endorsed on the policy or contained in a separate instrument, and requires that written notice of the assignment be given to the insurer at its principal place of business.

Question 27

Law of Property Act 1925 s.136

Answer 27

Under this section, the assignment of a debt or chose in action transfers the underlying legal right to the assignee

Question 28

Statute of Frauds 1677

Answer 28

Provides that contracts of guarantee must be evidenced in writing

Question 29

Deregulation Act 2015

Answer 29

Provides that the failure of an insurer to deliver a motor certificate no longer affects the validity of the insurance

Question 30

Gambling Act 2005

Answer 30

Provides that ‘the fact that a contract relates to gambling shall not prevent its enforcement’. Its effect is to bypass the need to prove an insurable interest in policies on goods and, possibly, bypass the need to prove an insurable interest in relation to any policy which is neither life nor marine (including policies on real property).

Question 31

Married Women’s Property Act 1882

Answer 31

Section 11 allows a married woman to insure her own life or the life of her husband for her own benefit. It also provides that a policy taken out by a man for the benefit of his wife or children, or by a woman for the benefit of her husband or children creates a statutory trust of the policy. The effect is that the policy money will pass to the beneficiaries free of any debts of the insured.

Question 32

Equality Act 2010

Answer 32

Repealed and replaced various pieces of legislation that outlawed discrimination, including the Race Relations Act 1976, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

The 2010 Act replaced these with a united measure that outlaws discrimination on the grounds of ‘protected characteristics’:
• age;
• disability;
• gender reassignment;
• marriage and civil partnership;
• pregnancy and maternity;
• race;
• religion or belief;
• sex; and
• sexual orientation.

Question 33

Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015

Answer 33

S.57: a claim for personal injury will fail where the claimant is found to have been fundamentally dishonest in relation to part of the claim, even if part of the claim is genuine

Question 34

Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019

Answer 34

The insurer is no longer permitted to either avoid or cancel the insurance policy after the traffic accident has occurred (i.e. after the third party victim suffers injury as a result of the accident for which the insured is responsible). However, the insurer may still avoid the insurance contract before the event (the cause of death/bodily injury/damage to property, giving rise to the liability) taking place.

Question 35

Financial Services Act 2012, s.89

Answer 35

S.89 - Makes it a criminal offence for a person to make a statement which they know to be false or misleading in a material respect, and to make such a statement recklessly or dishonestly to conceal any material facts, in each case with the intention of inducing another person to enter into a contract of insurance.

S.90 - Creates the offence of engaging in a course of conduct which creates a false or misleading impression of the market in or the price of a specified relevant investment. The provisions apply to all financial products, and if it relates to an insured or insurer or a consumer or non-consumer, there may be a criminal remedy for misrepresentation.

Question 36

Married Women’s Property Act 1882 (s.11)

Answer 36

Creating a trust

Provides the easiest method of creating a trust. If a person insures their life for the benefit of their spouse and/or children, the policy automatically creates a trust in favour of the objects named therein’ under the provisions of the Act.

Question 37

Third Parties (Rights Against Insurers) Act 1930

Answer 37

The rights of an insolvent insured to an indemnity from its insurers under a liability policy were transferred to a third party claimant. However, the third party was required to establish the claim in proceedings against the insolvent insured prior to obtaining any rights under the insurance against the insurer. An important point to note is that the rights transferred were those of the insured and it follows that the third party’s claim against insurers under the 1930 Act was only as good as the insured’s claim to indemnity.

Question 38

Third Parties (Rights Against Insurers) Act 2010

Answer 38

The procedure required under the Third Parties 1930 Act was cumbersome and time-consuming, and so the Act has been replaced by the new Third Parties (Rights Against Insurers) Act 2010. This makes it easier, quicker and less expensive for a third party claimant, such as an accident victim, to bring a claim directly against liability insurers, bypassing the insured and the insured’s other creditors. The amended 2010 Act provides for rights to be transferred to a third party in the case that the insured is facing financial difficulties and uses certain alternatives to insolvency, such as voluntary procedures between the insured and the insured’s creditors.

Question 39

Law of Property Act 1925

Answer 39

The benefit of any insurance effected by the vendor of real property (houses and other buildings) is automatically assigned to the purchaser if, after exchange of contracts, the property is damaged or destroyed.
Thus, any insurance money received by the seller for such damage must be paid to the buyer on completion. In practice, this provision is of limited significance, because the usual arrangement will be for the buyer to arrange his own insurance on the property from the date of exchange of contracts.

Question 40

Fires Prevention (Metropolis) Act 1774

Answer 40

Section 83 of the Fires Prevention (Metropolis) Act 1774 allows a person who has a legal or equitable interest in buildings (such as a lessee, mortgagee or person who has exchanged contracts) to effectively compel the owner or their insurers to reinstate (rebuild) the property if it is damaged or destroyed by fire.
They can do this by serving notice on the insured of their interest, in which case the insurer, must ‘cause the insurance money…to be laid out in reinstatement’ of the property. This does not mean that the insurers need necessarily reinstate the building themselves but, failing this, they must withhold payment of the insured’s claim until they are given a suitable guarantee that the insured themselves will do so. The third party who invokes the Act cannot claim on the policy as such, but they can influence the way in which the claim is settled.

Question 41

The Fraud Act 2006

Answer 41

This notes that a person is guilty of the criminal offence of fraud if they:

• Dishonestly makes a false representation;
• Dishonestly fails to disclose to another person information which he or she is under a duty to disclose; or
• Dishonestly abuses their position

For each of these, there must be an intention to make a gain for themselves or to expose another to the risk of loss.

Question 42

Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 s.57

Answer 42

States where ‘on the balance of probabilities that the claimant has been fundamentally dishonest in relation to the primary claim or a related claim’, the court ‘must dismiss the primary claim, unless it is satisfied that the claimant would suffer substantial injustice if the claim were dismissed’. The result of this is that where part of a claim is found to be ‘fundamentally dishonest’ (a term which is not defined by the legislation), the entire claim should be struck out by the court.

Question 43

Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA)

Answer 43

Where the person who has committed the fraud has been convicted, a confiscation order can be made to recover the assets that have been fraudulently obtained, and the insurer which has paid out on a fraudulent claim may be able to recover their money through this route (POCA Part 2). Even where a conviction cannot be made, Part 5 of POCA makes it possible to recover criminal assets in limited circumstances (e.g. where the person has fled abroad).